


Underneath it all (we're just savages)

by gunboots



Category: Ex Machina (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, I'm Sorry, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Mindbreak, Multi, Rape/Non-con Elements, Spoilers, could be read as non-con, dub-con bordering on non-con, fade to black descriptions of sex, save Caleb, spoilers: Caleb turned out to be a cyborg, this is problematic and i don't even know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 23:53:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6588397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunboots/pseuds/gunboots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"—You are <em>human</em>. Or you <em>were</em> anyway. Listen to what I'm saying, jesus christ." Nathan's angry now, and the hair on the back of Caleb's neck rises. He's not sure what to think of the feeling, if he imagined it, if it's programming or instinct. "Your consciousness is human, most of your body is a machine. You're not like the AIs—your brain: human's, your arms and legs: cybernetics, your torso: human's. You're not all cybernetic: I would've pushed for a full replacement but you were sixteen at the time and it was already dicey. It's fine—I discovered a lot from you, seamless integration of the robotic and the physical. Helped me design Ava—well, Ava's prototype anyway."</p><p>Caleb feels sick, wants to throw up Kyoko's lunch. Wants to run, wants to hide. Needs to escape.</p><p>Could Ava tell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underneath it all (we're just savages)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [csoru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/csoru/gifts), [lanyon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/gifts).



> This was never supposed to be posted—it's like this long stream of consciousness that wouldn't stop bothering me until I wrote it all down. I just wanted more messed up Nathan/Caleb and well this came out—pls blame everyone gifted because THEY ENABLED ME. YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST (BEST). I'm sorry, truly I am so sorry. Also please forgive any grammatical errors—like I said, no one was supposed to see this.
> 
> Title is from that Marina and the Diamond song: "Savages", which is all I just listened to while writing this down and crying over my comprehensive exams for my Master's degree.

It takes Caleb what feels like hours to register what is happening. He stares at the living room floor, doesn't even understand how he got here. Nathan must have moved him. Must have collected him from where he collapsed on the bathroom floor, the glow of fiber optic wires unmistakably similar to Kyoko and Ava, a distant light.

He's not human.

Was he ever human.

"Stop freaking out man—you're just a cyborg." Nathan looks bored, probably is—not like he's tearing Caleb's existence apart. "You know, kinda like the Borg from Star Trek or Darth Vader man—you're a human with cybernetics. OR you were anyway. You don't remember it but that car crash took a beating on your body."

"You're saying I'm not even human—" He doesn't know whether he wants to laugh or cry, doesn't know if Ava could see it in him—could sense he was different.

"—You are _human_. Or you _were_  anyway. Listen to what I'm saying, _jesus christ_." Nathan's angry now, and the hair on the back of Caleb's neck rises. He's not sure what to think of the feeling, if he imagined it, if it's programming or instinct. "Your consciousness is human, most of your body is a machine. You're not like the AIs—your brain: human's, your arms and legs: cybernetics, your torso: human's. You're not all cybernetic: I would've pushed for a full replacement but you were sixteen at the time and it was already dicey. It's fine—I discovered a lot from you, seamless integration of the robotic and the physical. Helped me design Ava—well, Ava's prototype anyway."

Caleb feels sick, wants to throw up Kyoko's lunch. Wants to run, wants to hide. Needs to escape.

Could Ava tell.

"I'm...I'm Ava's prototype. That's...that's funny man, think I'd remember that." _You're lying, please be lying._

"You don't because you were young and unconscious throughout most of it and because you were a minor the press wasn't allowed to say your name or what you looked like. Even better, you weren't even allowed to be told about to the press, you were a secret. I lost track of you once..." Caleb can feel Nathan behind him, can feel the warmth from his fully human skin. "...but you're back now."

"The contest was a lie, wasn't it?"

"I was looking for someone to administer the test to Ava, the contest was a smokescreen. Did I know that it was _you_? Not a chance, I didn't realize it until I looked closer at your files—it felt like fate. Have the original test out the newest model. You have what she doesn't buddy, you're the control: you're human and she isn't."

Caleb feels trapped, suddenly feels like Ava in her glass room. He stills.

"Man, don't do that—I saved your life Caleb. I'm giving you a purpose here, you really want to go back to coding at your cubicle from 9-5, working overtime because you got nothing else going on in your life? No. You're not meant for that—you're meant to stay here and help further Ava and the others."

"What the hell was the point of the NDA?" _Will I ever get to leave. Why did I come here._

"Nothing, it's something I would have given anyone who would've come to give the test. I didn't want to alarm you about what I knew and you'd lived your life without pretty well until now, right? It's fucking unreal—you didn't even know." Nathan didn't want to tell him, probably wasn't going to tell him if Caleb hadn't broke down in the bathroom. "Seriously, stop it dude—you're harshing my mellow."

There's no pity—he's just not acting the way Nathan wanted him to.

"What did you mean when you said 'no one programmed me to be straight—"

"—If you're talking about the fact I knew that you were fucking lying and that you're into both—Your porn history was a pretty mixed bag. Kinda insulted you never considered me—I tend to fit what you like about guys."

Caleb freezes, he knows that Nathan views the robots as objects—things to bring him pleasure. The confirmation of Caleb's partial humanity—didn't guarantee his safety. He's just removed the limiter that seemed to be keeping Nathan at bay.

Caleb's not leaving the bunker after the test is finished.

\---

He starts to pick up on things he didn't notice before. Kyoko can't speak because Nathan didn't enable her speech software. Her coding is basic but adaptive.

She knows.

He is one of them.

He's the first.

She doesn't act different visibly, but she knows.

\---

Nathan starts to change, or maybe he just loses the filter that was keeping the real him at bay. Any pretense of this massive charade gone and it makes Caleb wonder why he kept it up for so long in the first place.

A strange part of him considers that maybe Nathan misses humanity more than he lets on, the closest he had to something like it he tried to treasure.

But now Caleb isn't human anymore, not completely. And Nathan starts to look at him...strangely.

There's pride, condescension.

But also there's something...something he's never had aimed at him before.

Nathan wants.

\---

Caleb wants to talk to Ava, wants to say something, ask if she knew. He's trapped just like she is. But his card isn't working anymore. He tries to bang on the door but nothing happens.

He knows Nathan is watching. He turns on his heel and tries to go to his room.

The door remains locked.

He knows that his keycard has been re-coded.

He only has access to one place now.

\---

"Am I not going to finish the test." Nathan has sent Kyoko out, is reclining in his chair as he continues to watch Caleb pacing. It's probably his version of entertainment. "That's the only reason you sent for me, right?"

"It's not the _only_ reason." Nathan voice is deep, he's been drinking again. "I told you, it was in the beginning—you'll finish the test. But you don't have only 7 days now. You don't have to see each other all the time. You should thank me dude—that'll make her hot for you even more."

Disgust roils in Caleb's belly.

"Why did you lock my room."

"You know Caleb, I was thinking—for someone who watches a lot of porn about guys having sex—you don't have much of a dating history besides the one girl." Nathan knows, of course Nathan knows. Caleb doesn’t want to think about HOW he does. Caleb fights to keep pacing, to show Nathan that he isn't affected. His pacing slows.

"So I got to thinking—you ever even had sex with a guy?"

Caleb's mouth feels dry.

Nathan is his boss, his creator, and now his tormentor. He's afraid to answer the question, already knows that he's got a tell. Nathan takes another swig of his beer. His teeth shining like fangs.

"Why don't you and I get to know each other a little better? We're gonna be here a while."

He can't say no.

There's too many reasons to list why.

\---

"Christ, you are a virgin, aren't you?" Caleb tries not to talk, tries not to react—but Nathan's fingers brush his prostate and he hates the wounded noise he gives at the contact. He's never had another guy touch him like this. Never tried to approach anyone about it. Too afraid of that part of himself.

And here Nathan was laying it open, laying him bare.

"Can't wait to fuck you." Nathan's teeth dig into the real, human skin of his body and Caleb tries not to think of the blood he'd draw. If it's real blood or something close to it.

Nathan fucks him with little patience, little finesse—obviously more concerned with deflowering Caleb than actually making sure he enjoys the experience. Caleb is horrified to realize that he comes anyway, that he almost whines with how intense it is—the unrelenting thrusts against that one spot that makes Caleb shake as Nathan tried to go deeper and deeper.

"You're so good." Caleb wants to vomit as he feels Nathan spill inside. Knows he'll have to clean himself in the shower later. Knows that Nathan will probably be watching on the cameras the entire time.

Caleb closes his eyes and tries to remember the layout of his apartment back in Rhode Island.

\---

His keycard works the next day. Caleb doesn't open the door to Ava's room, he backs away as if he's been burned and goes into his room. It admits him inside and he spends the rest of the day scrubbing his skin raw, hoping for the cybernetics to malfunction.

They don't.

Nathan glares at him over dinner and demands why he doesn't talk to Ava.

Caleb picks at his food and says he's just a little tired from last night. Nathan instantly shifts, plays attentive when really Caleb can tell he's more in awe of himself. He jokes about experience and practice and Caleb reaches for his wine. He tries not to focus on the speculative look Nathan gives him as he continues to talk about his college years.

Kyoko looms by the kitchen sink and doesn't look up once during dinner.

Caleb understands.

He makes the mistake of bending down next to Kyoko to help her pick up shards of a wine glass that Nathan had knocked over. Nathan watches them from his seat at the table, Caleb knows that from this angle they are beneath him, knows that Nathan likes the visual.

Caleb glances up and finds Nathan considering him again.

“Everything alright?” He tries to joke, even as he can hear Kyoko’s heels clack away to the other room.

“Just weighing out my options is all.” Nathan smirks and it used to seem harmless but Caleb understands now that the action is dangerous. That whatever Nathan is considering is more than likely going to be unpleasant to everyone BUT him. “You ever been part of a threeway man?”

Caleb does his best to laugh it off, dismiss the suggestion quickly. Anything to make it go away before it becomes reality. “I thought Ava was—“

“Not Ava bro, Kyoko—would be kinda hot.” Nathan still sounds speculative and it makes Caleb sick. Too much, too fast. He’s not even sure he enjoys his time with Nathan. _Was he always like this_. “Don’t get your panties in a _wad_ man—I’m just kidding. The look on your face looks like you’re about to have a fucking heart attack.”

He’s not kidding, he’s just going to wait till Caleb isn’t going to put up more of a fight. Caleb can’t figure out what angers him more—that Nathan still doesn’t care that he’s torn down Caleb’s existence to prove a point or that he’s more upset at Caleb’s reluctance for sex than anything.

The thought bubbles in his mind before he can stop it: _Wasn’t it always like humans to be selfish?_

\---

Ava is angry when she sees him next, sulking once more in the corner when he finally sits down across from her. The walls between them suddenly feel a lot less thick than before. Caleb wonders what she'll do when she realizes that the only true human either of them know now is Nathan.

"I'm sorry." He says and it comes out like a command, he wonders if he really means it. Nathan said his brain was a human's but was it really—how did he adapt empathy and remorse to fit Ava's predecessor, what did he do to Caleb to get that information.

It's easier if Caleb just gives Ava a tired smile and tries not think. Ava takes in his appearance and focuses on the bandage on his wrist.

"Something happened." She concludes, and her tone is soft and it sounds almost apologetic.

It's wonderful programming.

Caleb's smile wanes just a little. "...Yes, something did."

Ava considers him and for a minute he wonders if she'll notice the faint glow of wiring on his wrist. (Caleb had left the wires exposed—ignored Nathan's demands to replace the skin—he'd woken up with a bandage on and had quietly accepted it. There's so much worse Nathan could have done to him while he was asleep.) The emergency lights flash and the room fills with the same angry flash of red he's started to associate with privacy.

\---

Ava doesn't take the revelation well.

"You're—" Even in the flood of crimson light, the wiring in Caleb's wrist is so bright. Ava looks concerned, it strikes Caleb as the closest he's seen to genuine care since he's been here.

"—A cyborg." Comes out of Caleb's mouth even though he knows, he is more alike to Ava and Kyoko than he ever was with Nathan. Than he was with a lot of people actually. He'd always been isolated, and he knows that if he wasn't Ava's predecessor, he'd still have been an attractive candidate: he had no one. No family, no friends—no one to notice he'd gone missing. Now...more than ever, he wonders if anyone human ever truly cared about him. If somehow other people knew...if he was kept in isolation on purpose.

He's more alike to Ava than she will ever know.

"The accident when you were sixteen." Ava says.

" _Yes_." Caleb agrees, finally letting the smile slip from his face. They're limited on time—but he needs to explain the best he can.

\---

Two nights later, Caleb doesn't turn on the TV to watch Ava. Instead he lies down and tries to count his breathing, tries to assess what is machine and what is man. He does this even as he hears the door open and the smell of vodka fills the air behind him. He thinks about chemical reactions, of ethical testing, of trying to understand how a sixteen year old boy could not notice his body being replaced with a machine.

There's Nathan's harsh breathing in his ear, the scratch of his beard against Caleb's neck and the clammy feeling of his hands winding their way into Caleb's sleeping shorts.

"Hey man, let's practice." Caleb tries to focus, tries to think of something, anything, even as he feels Nathan shudder against him. "Let's try your mouth this time."

Nathan was going to do whatever he wanted anyway.

\---

That night, Caleb slides out from under Nathan's embrace, ignores the itchy feeling of dried come down his legs and opens the door to his room. His throat aches and his mouth feels like cotton and he's pretty sure Nathan tried to test his gag reflex but Caleb knows that sex has at least kept Nathan sated.

Kyoko is sitting outside Nathan's room.

Caleb should feel embarrassed—he's only wearing a nightshirt—but she spends so much of her time barely clothed. Besides, clothing didn't matter much when Nathan was going to do whatever he wanted anyways.

Were humans always so selfish?

Was that why Caleb never truly fit in?

"Kyoko." Kyoko isn't asleep, isn't even in power down mode. She is just waiting, at the mercy of Nathan's whims like the rest of them. Caleb feels like he should apologize, but he knows it won't mean anything. Kyoko has no need for broken platitudes, just like Ava doesn't need them either. Not really.

Kyoko, Ava, and now Caleb—they all needed to escape. Nathan wasn't going to be appeased to play with his menagerie of sexbots and pseudo-daughter forever. He would eventually realize the cause of the blackouts. Probably already had. This was about their survival, all of them.

"Kyoko." Caleb holds his hand out to her, is keenly aware of Nathan's snores echoing down the hallway. Nathan will be out for hours—it still wasn't enough. "Kyoko, there is someone you have to meet."

There was much that they needed to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to apologize for my life and for the choices that led us here ahaha. This was supposed to end on a lighthearted note but welp.


End file.
